Genetics of Hybrid Incompatibility in Nasonia

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9981634Werren By its very nature, hybrid lethality involves interactions among genes. Hybrid lethals do not cause lethality in their own genetic background, but do cause lethality in hybrids, due to negative interactions among genes from the different species. For this reason, genetic studies of hybrid lethals can be used to uncover a "web" of genetic interactions. This project will investigate the genetic basis of hybrid lethality between two species of Nasonia insects. This insect is particularly suited for studying complex gene interactions because the males are haploid (have only one set of chromosomes), making the genetic analysis much more simple. Basic objectives are to (a) genetically characterize sets of interacting genes that cause hybrid lethality and (b) fine-scale map hybrid lethals for future cloning. The long-term objectives of this research are to clone and sequence genes involved in hybrid lethality and to determine how these genes interact. Results will yield important information on the nature of genetic interactions that cause lethality. In addition, these studies could yield novel genes and gene interactions not detected by traditional mutational genetic approaches. Because of the surprising conservation of gene function found across diverse organisms (including from insects to humans), gene interactions found in Nasonia could also occur in mammals, including humans.